Luis Flores Medrano, a 47 year old truck driver from San Diego CA was charged with homicide by vehicle, aggravated assault by vehicle and other offenses.

The PA state police stated that Medrano was driving an empty tractor trailer on Route 30 on Feb. 25 when he tried to make a left turn onto business route 30 when he turned into the path of a 20 year old driver in a pick up truck. The young man’s truck slid under the middle of the trailer.

The big rig driver got out of his rig to check on the injured man, but he was not sure there was a driver in the truck. So he pulled the truck off the road, dragging the truck about 60 feet. The pickup truck driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

Our Virginia trucking accident lawyers send sincere condolences to the family of this young man. It is tragic that a moment’s inattention and carelessness leads to such tragic consequences, but these types of preventable, deadly truck crashes happen every day in America.

Tractor trailers are large, heavy, dangerous vehicles, and they must be driven with extreme care. The Virginia Commercial Driver’s Manual stresses the importance of truck drivers being keenly aware of safety rules when driving their rig. For example, assuming the pickup truck was traveling at 55 MPH, it traveled 60 feet per second. The big rig driver probably underestimated how fast the pick up was traveling, and he turned into the path of the truck. From 55 MPH on a dry road, it takes a car or pick up truck 2-3 seconds to come to a full stop.

This tragedy could have been avoided if the big rig driver had just been more aware of his surroundings and oncoming traffic.

Our truck accident attorneys have dealt with similar tragic cases where a truck driver miscalucation killed someone. This case involved a big rig clipping our client’s car, which flipped and killed him. The $2.4 million settlement was a comfort to his loved ones, but it will never bring the man back.